Planning Your Employee Satisfaction or Employee Opinion Survey

Employee opinion surveys and employee satisfaction surveys are useful in providing insight that can inform organizational training and development. They can gauge an organization’s performance and success. They can also assess if an organization’s mission is being communicated to employees. Finally, they can glean insight into issues arising in the work environment. Employee opinion surveys and employee satisfaction surveys address various topics including: communication, interpersonal relations, compensation/benefits, satisfaction, management/leadership, teamwork, mentoring, and programs/policies. Data uncovered from such surveys can help to improve job satisfaction, motivate employees, enhance management, improve organizational climate, and evaluate training needs.

There are several stages involved when planning an employee opinion survey or employee satisfaction survey:

Needs analysis: A needs analysis will help to define why the survey is being conducted. Its best to hold a meeting to determine the goals and objectives of the project. Also, this is the best time to think about the best methods of collecting the data.

Focus groups: Conduct focus groups with employees to gather potential topics of exploration. You survey can address issues that arise from the focus groups.

Survey design: This is the time when you synthesize all information gathered from your needs analysis, focus groups, and other available documents. Draft the questions you want to ask employees. Be sure to also include open-ended questions to encourage employees to provide written feedback.

Review survey with shareholders: Be sure to provide all shareholders with the opportunity to review the survey and offer feedback. This ensures that you are putting out the best quality survey possible. A good quality survey provides you with good quality data.

Administer a pilot survey: Allow a select number of respondents to take your survey. Feedback from a pilot survey can help to improve clarity, readability, wording, layout, and question sequencing.

I was involved in the initial tour of Ambivista, and it is a comprehensive and robust tool that rivals other "big box" cloud and software based survey tools that I have encountered in the past, including Survey Monkey and Inquisite.